'Centre will be sensitive to concerns of Southern states during delimitation'

The Centre is sensible to the concerns of the southern states and they will not suffer during the delimitation exercise to redraw Lok Sabha constituencies based on population figures, government insiders have said.

South Indian states have been able to check their population growth through various family planning measures. Several leaders from south Indian states have expressed concern that due to the huge population of north India, they will get more seats and states who controlled population would end up as losers with under-representation.

The government understands their concern and will try to develop a mechanism that they continue to get a proportionate representation. However, nothing has been decided so far, a government insider said.


The debate around delimitation started after the women's reservation bill was introduced. The quota can only be implemented after census and delimitation are completed.

Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, while reiterating support for the women's reservation bill, had recently raised concerns about delimitation of Lok Sabha seats, calling it Damocles Sword hanging over the state. Stalin also urged the PM to allay fears of southern states.